House No. 100: Nest

House No. 100: Nest

hair, straight pins, quail's egg
2 in. x 2 in. x 1.5 in., with egg
2 in. x 2 in. x 1 in., without egg
100/365; 04/10/11

Nesting is about preparation and creating a sense of home, and home is tricky. We want to stay in many regards, but we all eventually must leave to create our own. Homes are created for children to nurture them, but children have to be nudged from the nest. Homes and their comforts are symbolic of the relationship that we share with our parents and own separation and individuation from them.

 

Today's house overlaps with another series that I am working on called Metallurgy, in which I am exploring modern psychology in two corresponding twelve-part series, one in miniature sculptural pieces and the other in works on paper.

In some part, The Happy Homemaker is an extraction of that project. The sense of home and comfort, of what we create for and around ourselves, and our origin stories are all a part of who we are, how we react, and who we become. It is just one complex facet of human development.

How fitting on a marking day such as my 100th house that I should delve into the project's origin story.

I am a week past the one quarter mark of this project and have a feeling of, "Oh my goodness! I will never get all of my ideas finished," which is quite the opposite reaction than I had expected I would have.

As I work on these houses, I am continuing to inform my other projects, and that is very exciting for me.